WWE Superstar Bayley recently spoke with WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin for a recent episode of his “Steve Austin Show” podcast. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On working in the Japanese culture and her matches with Asuka: “I know how the crowds are,” said Bayley of working in Asia. “That is why I am kind of nervous; I know Asuka is going to be on our team so she can kind of help us with that. She is an awesome person. I always mess around with her because she speaks a little English to us so when she won the title, everyday I would just take the title from her and she would start hitting me. She is so funny. I miss being in the ring with her because she always made me up my game because her style is so different but you have to be quick minded and quick on your feet. I miss wrestling her.”
“She can be snug. Her kicks can be, but it was actually easier than I thought. I actually worked with Japanese women before I got to WWE and I was with SHIMMER, but I didn’t really know how to approach them either. I know it’s some Lucha-style pro wrestling; I guess I can incorporate with them but I didn’t know what to expect from Asuka,” Bayley explained. “She’s been wrestling for a long time, but I think we mesh pretty well, we only had a few TakeOver matches and her kicks were a little stiff but it’s okay. With all the adrenaline, you don’t feel it until afterwards.”
On first winning over the WWE fanbase via her character in NXT: “It’s so important [to portray yourself in your character]. It makes it all easier and makes it make a lot more sense where you can just have fun and not think as hard. All you have to do is go out there and be you. Backstage I’m more laid back and even shy around people and not in the groups being loud or anything.
“With my friends I am talkative, but once I go out there I can go out there and express myself that you can’t do anywhere else,” said Bayley. “It’s so much fun, but it’s just me turned up 100. Even after I found myself, it made the wrestling psychology easier because you think of what makes sense to me doing this, or you can put your character things here. It made everything better. It wasn’t until I got to NXT until everything clicked for me.”
On advice she gives to up-and-coming WWE talents: “Girls that are coming up, they’ll ask three to four times. I always watch different things so I’ll watch one to watch myself and then watch it again for my opponent; then I will watch it again with no sound, and then watch it again to the commentators so I can see what they are saying and what I was doing and why they made a big deal for what I was doing at that time, or watch my body language, or if I sold wrong, or whatever.”
Check out the complete Bayley interview at PodcastOne.com/Steve-Austin-Show.